Many countries embarked on reforms of mental health law in the wake of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. These reforms have had varying levels of success. This paper considers the experience of consumers in the Victorian mental health system, drawing on an evaluation that asked consumers and clinicians about their knowledge and experience of rights under the Victorian Mental Health Act, 2014. The data show that consumers were not informed of their rights, were not involved in decisions about treatment, were not able to access safeguards, and could not exercise their rights. The explanations for this include limited staff time, unclear delegations of responsibility, a lack of knowledge, training, and support for rights, and a preference for ‘best interests’ approaches. The paper identifies tangible reforms that would maintain rights for consumers, including competent refusal of treatment, legislative and regulatory reforms, and training and resourcing. Consumers in this study found that the rights-based framework in the Mental Health Act, 2014 had such an insignificant effect on clinical mental health practice in Victoria that their rights appeared to be illusory.

许多国家在《残疾人权利公约》之后开始了精神卫生法的改革。这些改革取得了不同程度的成功。本文考虑了消费者在维多利亚州精神卫生系统中的体验，参考了一项评估，该评估向消费者和临床医生询问了他们在 2014 年维多利亚州精神卫生法案下的权利知识和经验。 数据显示消费者没有被告知他们的权利，未参与有关治疗的决定，无法获得保障，也无法行使自己的权利。对此的解释包括员工时间有限、责任分配不明确、缺乏知识、培训和对权利的支持，以及对“最佳利益”方法的偏爱。该文件确定了维护消费者权利的切实改革，包括适当拒绝治疗、立法和监管改革以及培训和资源配置。本研究中的消费者发现，2014 年《心理健康法案》中基于权利的框架对维多利亚州的临床心理健康实践影响微不足道，以至于他们的权利似乎是虚幻的。